The history and power of self-immolation
Self-immolation is the act of committing suicide by setting oneself on fire, and there has been a flurry of this suicidal act happening in the Arab world in the past couple of weeks. Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest in Tunisia last month, which led to a revolt in the country. And yesterday, an Egyptian protestor set himself on fire, according to Egyptian officials. This recent event follows a slew of other self-immolations in Egypt, Algeria, and Mauritania.
The practice got world-wide attention in the 1960’s when Buddhist monks set themselves on fire in protest of how the South Vietnamese government was treating them. The most famous image of this act was taken by Malcolm Browne, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and photographer, who took the prize-winning picture of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức setting himself on fire on the streets of Saigon in 1963.
To help us understand more about self-immolation and those who commit it, we are joined by Michael Biggs, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Oxford, who has been studying this form of protest.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.